Heddle for looms.



Patented Mar. 2'5, |902. C. F. ROPEB.' vHEDLE FOB LCIMS.

(Application led Sept. 20, 1901.-) (llo Model.) 2 Sheets-*Sheet I.

.r m In lv @7% ff l Patented Ma-r.4 2 5, |902.

,2 sheets-sheet 2.

(No Model.)

WIT'PI-EEJEEE.-

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UNITED STATES ATnN'r Fries.

CHARLES F. ROPER, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO DRAPER COMPANY, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, AND PORTLAND, MAINE, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

HEDDLE FOR Looms.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 696,084, dated March 25, 1902. Application iiled September 20. 1901. Serial No. 75,821. (No model.)Y v,

T0 @ZZ wwm/ "my OO'IWWf/f passes, and it has above said eye and near its Be it known that I, CHARLES F. ROPER, a upper end anelongated vertical slot h, by citizen of the United States, residing at Hope- -means of which it is strung upon one of the dale, in the county of Worcester and Comharness cross-bars B. Nhen the heddles are 5 monwealth of Massachusetts, have invented also utilized as warp-stop detectors, the slots 55 certain new and useful Improvements in Z) are of a length greater than the vertical Looms, of which the following is a specificawidth of the cross-bars, so that each heddle tion, reference being had to the accompanyis capable of an independent vertical moveing drawings, in whichment on its harness-frame, thus permitting 1o Figure l is a diagram of so much of the harsuch additional movementof the heddle(when 6o ness mechanism of a loom as is necessary for its thread breaks) as will bring about the stopan understanding of the present invention. page of the loom, as by numerous well-known Fig. 2 is a detail side view of the middle part devices of which one example is set forth in of one of the heddles. Fig. 3 is a cross-secsaid Northrop patent. The portion of each :5 tion of one of the heddles in the plane indiheddle below the eye is plain and usually 65 cated by the line 3 3 in Fig. 2. Fig. 3a is a playsV between suitable guides, and if a vi- `cross-section of a modified form of heddle. brating feeler is used to coperate with an Fig. 4 isa side view of the upper part of a abnormally-positioned heddle (as when its heddle. Figs. 5, 6, and 7 are diagrams illusthread breaks) it is this lower portion of the 2o trating the manner in which the heddles and heddle which is struck by the feeler. v 7o warp-threads are related. f During the regular shedding'operation the It has long been a practice to utilize the harheddles are moved up entirely by the action ness-heddles as warp-stop detectors, so that of the harness-bars B B upon the upper marwhen the warp-thread belonging to a particugins of the heddle-slots b b, so that the threads z 5 lar heddle breaks the heddle will have an adare pulled to form the upperplane of thek 75 ditional movement,which`brings it into posished, whereas as the harness moves down the tion to coperat-e with some extraneous dedownward movement of the threads (below vice and as the result to stop the loom. For the plane where the threads cross) to form the purpose of explainingthe presentimprovethe lower plane of the shed is caused by said 3o ment it will suffice to refer to United States harness-bars pushing down upon the lower 8o Patent of J. H. Northrop, No. 594,355, dated margins of said heddle-slots. The heddles November 23, 1897. The here accompanying are necessarily made thin, and as the tension drawings illustrates@ much of the mechanon the warphreads when occupying the ism of said Northrop patent as is necessary lower plane of the shed is considerable (usu- 3 5 to explain the present improvement, and said ally exceeding the tension on the warp-threads 85 patent may be referred to for details of conwhen occupying the upper plane of the shed) struction with which the present improve it follows that this downward push on the ment is not concerned. heddles tends to buckle them between the As illustrated in the accompanying draw- Stringing slots h b and the eyes a a, which is 4o ings, two harnesses are employed, and of the objectionable, because the buckling tends to 9o harness-frames only the upper cross-bars B B injure the heddles and also causes irregularare shown, upon which the thin sheet-metal ity in the lower plane of the shed. heddlesAAare strung. The heddles belong- One object of the present invention is to ing to each harness are arranged in two banks, stilfen the heddle between the'upper string- 45 alternate warp-threads controlled bysaid haring slot and the eye, so as to avoid this buc- 95 ness passing through the heddles of one of kling when the heddle is pushed down. To said banks, thus enabling the harnesses to this end the heddle is corrugated between accommodate fine threads arranged closely said slot and eye, the corrugating extending together. Each heddle has a warp-eye a at longitudinally, as best shown in Fig. 4. In

5o its middle, through which its warp-thread cross-section the corrugation maybeasshown 1o:

in Fig. 3; but, preferably, the eorrugation is as shown in Figs. 3 and 5, so as to offset one preventing chafing of the threads by the heddles. This latter point demands consideration. As shown in Figs. l and 4, the preferred form of corrugation is extended a short distance below the eye, so that the margins at the front and back of the'eye are offset, as shown in Figs. 3 and 5, thus enabling the thread to pass straight through the eye without tending to twist the heddle into a plane at au angle to the line of travel of the warp. This in itself is of importance, as will be explained in connection with the diagrams Figs. 5, G, and 7, which are drawn substantially to scale, so as to indicate approximately the actual conditions in a loom. Each of the diagramsis supposed to be a cross-section through both harness along the threads constituting the lower plane of the shed when the front harness (at the left) is down and the rear harness is up. Fig. 7 illustrates what oecurs in a construction and arrangement like that of said Northrop patent. The warpthreads are taut and as the result they tend to turn the heddles at an angle as shown, and at the same time the heddles tend to divert the threads from their straight paths. This gure shows the heddles in the position which they would occupy if they were free to hang uniformly on their respective threads. The effect on the threads may be noted by following a particular thread-say one which extends through the eye of a heddle of the front bank of the front harness. It will be noted that this thread is diverted as it passes through its own heddle, owing to the edges of the heddle bearing upon the adjacent threads. It then comes in contact first with the front edge and then with the back edge of two adjacent heddles of the rear bank of heddles belonging to the same harness, tending thereby to twist both of said heddles and to be diverted from its straight path by them. It then extends back through the two banks of heddles of the rear harness, coming in contact with the rear edge of one of the front heddles and the front edge of one of the rear heddles, tending to twist both and to be diverted from its path by both. For the sake of showing the heddles symmetrically arranged the threads are shown more diverted than they are in practice, the heddles being, in fact, twisted to accommodate the threads as they pass through. It will thus be seen that each thread bears frietionally against several heddles, which is objectionable, be-

cause the threads must be drawn along such edges as the warp feeds forward, thus being ehafed, and is especially objectionable where a thread comes in contact with the edges of the heddles of a harness other than its own,

because iu such case the heddle edges seesaw on the threads as the harnesses shift, the threads going in one direction as the heddles go in the opposite direction. This often causes warp breakage with the stoppage of the loom, loss ot' production, and attention by the weaver, ifa warp stop-motion is employed, or defective cloth, if not. This latter defect is most marked in the formation of the lower plane of the shed, since the threads in such plane are subjected to a greater tension, asa general rule, than in the upper plane, as alreadystated. This defect was in part avoided by the heddle construction set forth in United States Letters Patent to Oberlin Smith, No. 569,805, dated October 20, 1896, in which the heddles are corrugated throughout their entire lengths, so as to offset the opposite edges, and thereby permit the threads to go straight through their respective heddles. It will be noted that in said Smith patent the corrugation has no beneficial strengthening function, since each heddle is slotted at both ends to straddle upper and lower cross-bars of the harness-frame, so that the heddles are pulled down as well as up. The diagram Fig. 6 shows the effect of the employment of the Smith heddles. They coperate all right with the threads belonging to the same harness as themselves, as shown at the left in Fig. G, but in the other harness they have the same eect in character' (though less in degree) upon the threads as in the arrangement shown in Fig. 7. This is shown at the right in Fig. 6. The Smith construction and arrangement therefore retains the chief defect of the other construction-that is to say, the seesawing under tension of the heddles of one harness upon the threads'of another harness during the formation of the lower plane of the shed. Fig. 5 illustrates how the present invention overcomes this defect. When the threads pass through their own heddles, (at the 1eft,) the eect is the same as in the Smith construction; but when they pass through the other harness they do not touch the edges of the heddles, because said heddles hang straight owing to being oiset by their corrugations at the eyes and because their lower ends are plain and not corrugated.

Some seesawing effect results in the formation of the upper plane of the shed after the threads cross; but this is less objectionable,because the tension on the threads in the upper plane is less and the corrugations are there important to stiften the heddles and to enable them to properly push the threads down.

I claim as my inventionl. A harness having a cross-bar, and heddles strung thereon, each heddle having a slot IOO IIO

through which said bar is strung and an eye below said slot, said slot being longervthau the vertical width ot' said bar so that the corrugation being omitted at the lower part n of the heddle, whereby during the formation of the lower' plane of the shed the threads therein do not chate on the heddles of an oppositely-moving harness.

2. A harness having a cross-bar, and heddies strung thereon, each heddle havin ga slot through which said bar is strung and an eye below said slot, said cross-bar acting to pull said heddle up and t'o push it down, andsaid heddle being stiffened by corrugation between the eye and slot to withstand the pushin g strain, but said corrugation being omitted at the lower part of the heddle.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES F. ROPER. Witnesses:

r E, D. BANCROFT,

ERNEST W. WOOD. 

